Marko: Australia “two months too early” for Red Bull

Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Mark has admitted that the opening round of the 2014 season in Australia is “two months too early” for Red Bull.

The new Renault-powered RB10 suffered reliability issues at all three pre-season tests. The Milton Keynes-based outfit managed just 319 laps over the course of the 12 test sessions, over 600 less than Mercedes and Williams.

Marko says Red Bull is well behind schedule and is worried that it could be impossible to catch up.

“The opening race comes at least two months too early for us,” he said in an interview with Servus TV. “This is a very serious matter. At the moment we do not know in what time frame it will be possible to catch up, or if it is possible at all.”

He also revealed some of the other issues, besides reliability, that the team has had with the Renault V6 Turbo power-unit.

“We are struggling with turbo lag,” he said. “You step on the gas, but the power does not arrive. It comes all of a sudden; the wheels spin, the car slides and you lose speed.

“We are working with Renault on the test benches day and night to improve the situation for Melbourne.”

Image courtesy of Red Bull/Getty Images

Jack Leslie

Jack Leslie is a freelance motorsport and Formula 1 journalist. He has been part of the Richland F1 team since the very start and made his F1 paddock debut for the website at the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix. Jack also writes for Car Throttle, RumbleStripNews, Formula1Blog, PureF1 and F1 Plus, as well as running a popular blog.